The RBA raised the cash rate by 25bps to 3.85% as widely expected, with the decision taken unanimously. While the accompanying statement avoided any explicit commitment to further tightening, the updated forecasts carried a more hawkish undertone.
Notably, the new projections are built on an assumption that the policy rate rises further to around 4.2% by the end of this year. That implicitly points to at least one additional hike being needed in the Bank’s view to contain resurging inflationary pressures.
In its statement, the RBA acknowledged that a broad range of recent data confirms inflationary pressures “picked up materially” in the second half of 2025. While part of the acceleration is judged to be temporary, the Bank highlighted that private demand is growing faster than expected, capacity pressures are higher than previously assessed, and labour market conditions remain slightly tight. Against that backdrop, the Board concluded that inflation is “likely to remain above target for some time,” justifying today’s move.
The message suggests policy is shifting from fine-tuning toward a more deliberate effort to re-anchor inflation expectations. The revised forecasts reinforce that view. CPI is now projected to peak at 4.2% in June 2026, up sharply from the previous 3.7% estimate, before easing to 3.6% by December 2026 and only gradually returning to 2.7% by end-2027. Trimmed mean inflation was also revised higher across the horizon, with the peak lifted to 3.7% in mid-2026.
Growth and labour market assumptions remain resilient. Average GDP growth for 2026 was revised up to 2.1% (from 1.9%), while the unemployment rate was nudged lower to 4.3% (down from 4.4%) next year, before edging higher to 4.5% in 2027. That profile suggests the RBA sees room to keep policy restrictive without inflicting material damage on employment, keeping the door open for further tightening if inflation fails to cool as projected.
